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The Road to Homeownership
Step by Step

For Asha Abokor and her twelve-year-old son, Ibrahim, the road leading to the front door of her new Phoenix home crossed many countries and several states.

Her journey started four years ago when she had to leave her war-torn homeland, Somalia. Asha had always dreamed of building a stable home for her son. However, she is the first to admit there were many days when she just thought that would never happen. But it did happen. In May 2004, she walked into her newly built KB Home with her son.

When her life became endangered due to war, single-mom Asha moved from Somalia to the United States by way of Canada and across the United States from California to Arizona. Schooled in Italy, her life in Somalia was one of mother and teacher. She taught English at Mogdisho University. She fluently speaks Arabic, English and Italian. But she, herself, was never taught how to build credit until she came to Arizona and met Michael Flores, a KB Home sales representative. Flores "kept me motivated," smiles Abokor. Flores continued to work, "going beyond," with her even after her first loan fell through. He told her that there were ways "we can get you into a home; just hang in there!" Soon after, he told her about a new collaborative program that KB Home and a nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix, had just begun. This program involved qualified loans, credit counseling and homebuyer education workshops.

Asha also credits NHS Phoenix HomeOwnership Center Manager, Bill Slater, with "going beyond." She had told Slater of her horror story in trying to obtain a loan prior to coming to NHS Phoenix. She didn't know what she was signing. She was scared, hesitant and overwhelmed as to whether or not she could really afford to buy a home and then sustain it. Of all she and her son had been through, including fleeing from their native country, Asha does not hesitate to state that the most overwhelming experience in her life was the homebuying process.

In March 2004, Bill Slater not only led her step by step through the NHS Phoenix program, including the homebuyer education workshop, he gave her tips on where to buy less expensive yet quality appliances and how to save money at the same time. For Abokor, the NHSP class took away the overwhelming sensation of homebuying. It no longer was numbers being "thrown at her." The class broke the process down. And the Class Manual was an invaluable tool. Asha states that she "got something she could take home and could refer to it again and again." She now knew that if she had to pay rent, she might as well use the same funds to have her own home. Asha learned how to go from no credit history to properly establishing a good credit history.

Asha had always prided herself on having patience whenever she sets herself a goal. While she was going through the NHSP program, Flores was taking her all over the Valley to locate the home she knew she wanted for herself and her son and still be within her budget. And then it happened–the next step. A couple suddenly changed their minds regarding a house being built. This particular house had "exactly everything I wanted," exclaims Abokor. Her patience and hard work had indeed paid off. And the positive stability impact on her son, Ibrahim, has been tremendous. In his young life, he has been through a lot. He was "12 going on 30," acknowledges Abokor. He only wanted some place to call home. According to Asha, he had his own room in the apartment they rented but was not the same as having his "own backyard and own playroom and now his friends sleep over and have their own room as well–making him very proud."

And the final step–the NHSP/KB Home collaborative program made her a believer in her dreams as well as fulfilling them. "The first step is dreaming it," states Abokor, "then once you dream it, that dream can be accomplished." As Asha would certainly confirm, the key to successful homeownership is just a matter of taking it step by step.

Written by R.A.Lenio